We propose a model of binary opinion in which the opinion of the individuals change according to the state of their neighbouring domains. If the neighbouring domains have opposite opinions, then the opinion of the domain with the larger size is followed. Starting from a random configuration, the system evolves to a homogeneous state. The dynamical evolution show novel scaling behaviour with the persistence exponent θ ≃ 0.235 and dynamic exponent z ≃ 1.02 ± 0.02. Introducing disorder through a parameter called rigidity coefficient ρ (probability that people are completely rigid and never change their opinion), the transition to a heterogeneous society at ρ = 0 + is obtained. Close to ρ = 0, the equilibrium values of the dynamic variables show power law scaling behaviour with ρ. We also discuss the effect of having both quenched and annealed disorder in the system.

1) Thyroid hormone levels in preterm infants <30 weeks were much lower than in term infants, 2) the postnatal surge of thyroid hormones normally seen at 24 to 48 hours of age in term infants did not occur in our group of preterm infant, and 3) low FT3 and FT4 levels are associated with higher mortality and severity of lung disease.

Splenopentin (SP-5, Arg-Lys-Glu-Val-Tyr) and thymopentin (TP-5, Arg-Lys-Asp-Val-Tyr) are synthetic immunomodulating peptides corresponding to the region 32-34 of a splenic product called splenin (SP) and the thymic hormone thymopoietin (TP), respectively. TP was originally isolated as a 5-kDa (49-amino acids) protein from bovine thymus while studying effects of the thymic extracts on neuromuscular transmission and was subsequently observed to affect T cell differentiation and function. TP I and II are two closely related polypeptides isolated from bovine thymus. A radioimmunoassay for TP revealed a crossreaction with a product found in spleen and lymph node. This product, named splenin, differs from TP only in position 34, aspartic acid for bovine TP and glutamic acid for bovine splenin and it was called TP III as well. Synthetic pentapeptides (TP-5) and (SP-5), reproduce the biological activities of TP and SP, respectively. It is now evident that various forms of TPs were created by proteolytic cleavage of larger proteins during isolation. cDNA clones have been isolated for three alternatively spliced mRNAs that encodes three distinct human T cell TPs. The immunomodulatory properties of TP, SP, TP-5, SP-5 and some of their synthetic analogs reported in the literature have been briefly reviewed.

Probing deeper into the existing issues regarding the exit probability (EP) in one-dimensional dynamical models, we consider several models where the states are represented by Ising spins and the information flows inwards. At zero temperature, these systems evolve to either of two absorbing states. The EP, E(x), which is the probability that the system ends up with all up spins starting with x fraction of up spins, is found to have the general form E(x)=xα/xα+(1-x)α. The EP exponent α strongly depends on r, the range of interaction, the symmetry of the model, and the induced fluctuation. Even in a nearest-neighbor model, a nonlinear form of the EP can be obtained by controlling the fluctuations, and for the same range, different models give different results for α. Nonuniversal behavior of the EP is thus clearly established and the results are compared to those of existing studies in models with outflow dynamics to distinguish the two dynamical scenarios.

A model for opinion dynamics (Model I) has been recently introduced in which the binary opinions of the individuals are determined according to the size of their neighboring domains (population having the same opinion). The coarsening dynamics of the equivalent Ising model shows power law behavior and has been found to belong to a new universality class with the dynamic exponent z = 1.0 ± 0.01 and persistence exponent θ ≃ 0.235 in one dimension. The critical behavior has been found to be robust for a large variety of annealed disorder that has been studied. Further, by mapping Model I to a system of random walkers in one dimension with a tendency to walk towards their nearest neighbour with probability ǫ, we find that for any ǫ > 0.5, the Model I dynamical behaviour is prevalent at long times.